Principles of Youth Engagement

Our participatory research revealed that certain conditions must be in place for youth
engagement to take place and be effective. These conditions need to be considered when planning policy and interventions.

The main conditions underpinning youth engagement are:

• Epistemic Privilege
• Voice
• Trust
• Agency
• Social Justice
• Relationships
• Sense of Belonging

Epistemic privilege
Young people live and grow in a complex system. Often their reality is very different
from that perceived by adults who have the power to influence their lives. Epistemic
privilege refers to the idea that individuals have different access to knowledge and
understanding based on their social, cultural, and economic contexts. For young
people in London, the recognition of epistemic privilege by adults who influence
their lives is crucial, as it shapes perspectives and opportunities in a diverse city.
Understanding that their lived experiences, along with those of their peers from
various backgrounds, influence how they perceive the world can foster empathy and
collaboration. Emphasizing the importance of diverse viewpoints encourages young
people to challenge dominant narratives and advocate for inclusivity in discussions
that affect their lives.

Voice
Young people want their voices heard. Young people want to be able to influence
action on the social issues that are important to them, with meaningful involvement
and the power to make change. However, they feel that decisions are made behind
closed doors without their input. When their opinions are solicited, they are unsure
about the impact of voicing them, hence, young people also want to see the impact
of their voice, thus closing the feedback loop of engagement is crucial.

Trust
Distrust is a significant barrier to youth engagement, affecting all levels. At the
individual level, young people express scepticism towards institutions due to past
unfulfilled promises and lack of transparency. Decisions made behind closed doors
and unshared outcomes fuel distrust.

Agency
Young people need to feel in control of their decisions and have the confidence and motivation to take action. Young people recognise and believe in their own agency, at the same time
as expressing frustrations about the structural barriers that limit their influence.
These include: a perceived lack of support and recognition from the institutions
they interact with, perceptions of tokenism and that their involvement does not lead to meaningful change, and the perceived personal cost of self advocacy and networking. Whilst they acknowledge the complex and difficult context within which they live, they also emphasise the need to take action.

Social justice
Inequalities and social injustice are a significant barrier to youth engagement. Young people feel that organisations and policies do not offer enough opportunities to promote fair treatment and equitable distribution of benefits. Young people want more initiatives focused on social justice issues, from climate change to educational inequities.

Relationships
The relationships young people have (with family, friends, in their community or with professional networks) can influence involvement. For example, friends and family can motivate and facilitate engagement in youth action. The influence of friends is more prominent for
younger teens, who are less concerned with other factors such as employability.

Sense of belonging
When young people have an affinity to where they are from, a place that they identify
with, they are more motivated to engage in youth action. But this changes
overtime. As young people move towards adulthood, they lose connections with their
local community as their priorities change leading (potentially) to disengagement and
a weaker inclination to participate in community initiatives.

Understanding Youth Social Action Report _Final.pdf

Clear principles underpinning young people’s involvement

• Equality and equity – meaningful young people’s engagement needs not only
  to include equal treatment of young people in the process of co-production (i.e.,
  young people as equal partners), but also recognizing their specific needs and
  supporting their development. Barriers for effective and meaningful participation
  need to be considered and removed.
• Diversity of voices and inclusion – the co-production process needs to ensure diversity and inclusion to foster and strengthen meaningful relationships between young people and decision makers and amongst young people themselves
• Transparency and accountability – the co-production process needs to set out a clear purpose, scope, course of action, outputs and expected outcomes. Decision makers should provide information about how the outputs of the co-production process were used and acknowledge the contribution of young people.
• Collaboration and Agency – the co-production process needs to foster a genuine collaboration between decision makers and young people by recognising their agency in the process.
• Ethical values and Integrity – the co-production process needs to be strongly anchored in the ethical standards of working with people (safeguarding) and guided by integrity.
• Adequate resourcing – the co-production process needs to be adequately resourced and supported by skilled independent facilitation.
• Transformative – the co-production process and involvement of young people in designing the YPIAF needs to focus on developing new skills and confidence for participants (this may involve additional training and capacity building).
• Youth friendly inclusive design – the co-production process needs to enable youth voice through creative innovative design of participatory interaction.